Some of the exercises in The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides surprise me. This is one of them:
Blind cross-contour drawings…
I find that when I do contour drawings (just the outer edge of an object) blind, the results are…odd. But when I do cross-contours, I can FEEL the form better and the results of the drawing are much more accurate to life. It’s a conundrum.
Yes, the head of the model is still a giant mess, but when I’m slowly working my way around the form, I can still make sense of the mess to me. I can see the nose and nostril, I can see the lip forms…I can see the ear…
And the hand…is almost perfect (oversized, but for being drawn blindly…it’s scary accurate).
I wish I understood the mode of thinking more. I’ll be re-reading every section of explanation for the exercises as I go through them from here on out. I need to finish them all — at the continued recommendation of Chris Beaven.
What went well?
- Getting back to the study schedule for The Natural Way to Draw.
- Enjoying a lot of family time today, even if it was hectic.
- Carving out time to come up to the cabin and draw.
What needs work?
- I’m a little bit low on energy today (after over-sleeping). I can’t figure that one out.
- I need to care for my lawn.
- I’m distracted today. Too much going on.
What did I learn?
There are strange tricks of the brain that I’m incredibly intrigued by.